Voltage booster

[Matster Chief]

Hey i have a question... I had the idea of trying to find a way to run guitar effects pedals off an iphone battery and also charging it throught the standard iphone charger. well the first obstical i've run into is the fact that the batteries don't run at a high enough voltage. most guitar pedals run on 9v's of power. The highest voltage i've found on an iphone battery is about 3.8v. is there a way to boost the voltage with out having to run a second battery or adding large amounts of circuitry?

[Marco]

You can buy ready made boost converters off ebay/dx/whatever, I don't see why you would want to use iphone batteries though ... just use a standard cell and some USB charger for standard cells.

PS. do those pedals really use batteries up fast enough for this to be interesting?

[Phaedrus]

Define "large" amount of circuitry. A boost regulator could get you up to your required voltage fairly efficiently, but that does take some know-how.


A better solution might be to put several batteries in series, which adds voltage linearly. Three batteries in series gets you 11.8V; then you can use an LM317 to regulate that to 9V or whatever you need.


EDIT: I agree with Marco. Use standard 18650 cells. Three of those will get you 10.8V, and chargers for them are cheap.